Summary: Strange Magic, a new animated film from Lucasfilm Ltd., is a madcap fairy tale musical inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Popular songs from the past six decades help tell the tale of a colorful cast of goblins, elves, fairies and imps, and their hilarious misadventures sparked by the battle over a powerful potion. Lucasfilm Animation Singapore and Industrial Light & Magic bring to life the fanciful forest turned upside down with world-class animation and visual effects.

Summary: Brooklyn mobster and prolific hit man Jimmy Conlon (Liam Neeson), once known as The Gravedigger, has seen better days. Longtime best friend of mob boss Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris), Jimmy, now 55, is haunted by the sins of his past—as well as a dogged police detective who’s been one step behind Jimmy for 30 years. Lately, it seems Jimmy’s only solace can be found at the bottom of a whiskey glass. But when Jimmy’s estranged son, Mike (Joel Kinnaman), becomes a target, Jimmy must make a choice between the crime family he chose and the real family he abandoned long ago. With Mike on the run, Jimmy’s only penance for his past mistakes may be to keep his son from the same fate Jimmy is certain he’ll face himself…at the wrong end of a gun. Now, with nowhere safe to turn, Jimmy just has one night to figure out exactly where his loyalties lie and to see if he can finally make things right.

The crew over at Scream Factory announced that they’ve opted to delay their Collector’s Edition Blu-ray release of Dog Soldiers. In an update via their Facebook page, the company stated that the release date is now June 23rd, 2015.

Why the delay? …

The film’s Director, Neil Marshall, has recently found potentially better film elements for us to work with so that we can create a new HD transfer. In order for us to do this, we need more time and which is why a delay was prompted.

Scream Factory added…

We really debated postponing this underrated gem again but we know that many of you have requested a new transfer (better than the previous Blu-ray release) and we want to exhaust every avenue to bring one to you. Once we look at the elements, we’ll keep you posted on the status of it. We hope you understand our position on this and we appreciate your patience.

According to the report, the disc will be released on May 4, 2015, and it will include numerous bonus features, including: the original ending; deleted and extended scenes; and a commentary by director Cameron Crowe.

Regarding the delay in the release of the disc, producer Greg Mariotti writes…

One of the great challenges in revisiting a film after all this time is the clearance dotting of the “i”s and crossing of the “t”s — and we’d rather take the time to ensure that we can include as much as possible, rather than chalk it up to “oh well, we can’t clear it in time, let’s just pull (insert extra feature here) from the Blu-ray.” We’d rather push the release and include the near-impossible than release something that is less than we know it can be. Simple as that.

Sony Pictures has released a new trailer for director Neill Blomkamp’s Chappie. The film – starring Hugh Jackman, Sharlto Copley, Sigourney Weaver and the South African rap duo Die Antwoord – will be released on March 6, 2015.

Summary: Every child comes into the world full of promise, and none more so than Chappie: he is gifted, special, a prodigy. Like any child, Chappie will come under the influence of his surroundings — some good, some bad — and he will rely on his heart and soul to find his way in the world and become his own man. But there’s one thing that makes Chappie different from anyone else: he is a robot. The first robot with the ability to think and feel for himself. His life, his story, will change the way the world looks at robots and humans forever.

Focus Features has released a new featurette for Black Sea starring Jude Law. The film will open in limited release in New York and LA on January 23rd, and nationwide on January 30th.

[Note: If the embed code for this video (below) is inoperable, as its connection appears to be iffy, please CLICK HERE to watch the featurette at Apple.com.]

Black Sea – The Story

Directed by: Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland, The Eagle)Written by: Dennis Kelly (Utopia)Cast: Jude Law, Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn, David Threlfall
Summary: A suspenseful adventure thriller directed by Academy Award winner Kevin Macdonald, centering on a rogue submarine captain (two-time Academy Award nominee Jude Law) who pulls together a misfit crew to go after a sunken treasure rumored to be lost in the depths of the Black Sea. As greed and desperation take control on-board their claustrophobic vessel, the increasing uncertainty of the mission causes the men to turn on each other to fight for their own survival.

Product Details: La-La Land Records and 20th Century Fox are proud to present a newly remastered and expanded edition soundtrack to the cult tv series Planet of the Apes, based on the mega popular series of films. Produced by Nick Redman and Mike Matessino, this incredible 2 CD set features over 2 hours of music, detailed liner notes by Jeff Bond that take the listener deep into the history of the Apes franchise and art direction you will go bananas over by the one and only Jim Titus.
Purchase online at: LaLaLandRecords

Scream! Factory just debuted the final artwork for their upcoming release of John Carpenter’s Escape from New York (1981) on Blu-ray.

Via their Facebook page, the company offered the following information about the release…

Here’s an exclusive first look at the official newly-commissioned artwork which comes courtesy to us from artist Paul Shipper (Halloween: The Complete Collection). Snake is centrally focused of course, but we felt that it was important to showcase the incredible ensemble cast who are all vitally important to the film too. Purists can rejoice: The iconic original poster art with the beheaded Statue of Liberty will be on the reverse wrap and we wouldn’t dream of not including it!

Extras (new & existing) are still in progress and will be announced in full details sometime in Feb. This is a 2-disc blu-ray set and will exceed the previous DVD special edition.

Last and not least (and which will be good news to fans hoping this would happen): We have created a brand new 2K High Definition scan of the inter-positive, struck from the original negative.

This is a Region A release. Street date is 4/21. You can pre-order the release directly from us @ . Amazon and other fine online retailer pre-order links should be going up soon in the upcoming months. Note: If you do order from us on our site, you’ll receive it two weeks earlier than the national street date and receive an 18” x 24” poster of the new art. Please keep in mind that the poster is only made in limited quantities.

The first trailer for director David Gelb’s (Jiro Dreams of Sushi) The Lazarus Effect has just been released. The film – as stated in Relativity Studio’s press release – is about “a group of medical students who discover a way to bring dead patients back to life.”

Principle photography for Spectre, the 24th feature film in the James Bond franchise, has been underway since early December, 2014, at Pinewood Studios west of London. The production’s main unit has now moved to locations in and around Sölden, Austria, for extensive filming. And Sölden provided a perfect opportunity for a photo shoot.

Although the detailed premise of Spectre is currently a closely guarded secret – despite an early version of the script being leaked by the Sony hack – the story centers around Bond infiltrating the unknown depths of Spectre (SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion).

Spectre is the second film in the franchise to be directed by Sam Mendez (Skyfall).